Plenty of people have claimed that pros don't need or want them. But Andy had a different take: "If you're descending in the wet, especially on lightweight carbon rims then there is often water on the rim braking surface. That means you need to brake early, to give time to clear that water. In turn, that often means you are dragging the brake into corners with no guarantee of when braking is going to happen.

"On a long descent in hot conditions, they way a brake feels at the top is different to how it feels at the bottom once the rim has become hot. Mostly this results in a ‘grabby', sudden brake feel."

Jokey. I hear from a friend on organic SRAM pads on a cross bike that they can wear fast. He had a lazy piston though. Similar to mountai bikes I imagine where organic or resin pads are quieter, less grabby, less grip but wear faster whereas metal pads last many months. When I went from rim brakes on my mountain bike pad wear meant once a month or more in the wet months but metal disc pads went for months. First set of Hayes pads went eight months.